Turning bowls can be fascinating and rewarding…but turning a solid block of wood into a
bowl can waste an awful lot of stock. Instead, try laminating your turning stock. Simply put, lamination is the gluing and stacking of woods…a simple technique that makes the best use of your stock and permits you to easily turn deeper bowls.

Here’s a simple, step-by-step procedure for turning an 8” diameter bowl to help you get started in laminated turning. For safety’s sake, be sure to read all instructions, turn off the machine before making any adjustments and wear a dust mask and eye protection while working.

STEP 1:
Selecting your wood
You can either use a single wood species (such as cherry), or alternate layers of light and dark woods (such as maple and walnut, etc.). Try to select woods with unique grain patterns and color. Two important tips: 1: Don’t turn stock with cracks, knots and sap pockets. 2: Don’t laminate hardwoods to softwoods.

STEP 2:
Prepare the wood
To turn an 8” diameter laminated bowl, use four pieces of wood…cut from three pieces of 3/4" thick stock, surfaced on both sides – 8” x 8” – 7” x 7” – and 6” x 6”. If you use a thickness planer, be sure to surface your long pieces of stock, before you cut it into the sizes mentioned here.

STEP 3:
Cutting the stock
Next, mark your stock for cutting as follows: Start with your 8” piece of stock and use a compass to draw an 8” diameter circle…and a 5-1/4” diameter circle on it.

Now, draw a 7” and a 4-1/2” diameter circle on your 7” piece of stock…and a single 6” diameter circle on your 6” piece of stock (See Fig. 1).
Drill a 1/4" diameter hole anywhere on the circumference of the smaller diameter circles on your 7” and 8; pieces of stock.
Use your Bandsaw to cut out the 8”, 7” and 6” diameter circles on your three workpieces…
then use your Scroll Saw

STEP 4:
Gluing up the stock
Set aside the small (4-1/2” dia.) circle from your 7” piece of stock. Arrange your two rings and two blanks in ascending order (small-to-large)…then arrange the grain patterns of the rings as you like. Make a pencil mark so you can locate the same position after applying the glue.
Evenly spread a layer of yellow woodworker’s glue then securely clamp the stock together with Handscrew Clamps (See Fig 3). Allow the glue to dry for at least 24 hours before turning.

STEP 5
Mounting the laminated stock
To mount the laminated stock directly to a 3-3/4” Faceplate